Mercy! It’s hot here in Southeast Texas.  The Collard Greens are hanging on, the celery is bearly making it, parsley keeps trying to bolt and the Eggplant is under attack by red spider mites but the Minnesota Midget Melons are doing well and so are the Sweet Potatoes.  

Gee, We've Had a lot of RAIN!

After getting 10.24 inches of rain last night, I'm afraid the following meme could be me - I haven't even been out to check the garden, yet.

The Perfect "Tulle" to Prevent the Birds from Eating Your Tomatoes

Are you like me, in a constant battle with birds eating holes in your tomatoes just as soon as they begin to turn the slightest bit red?

I have wanted to enjoy truly vine ripened tomatoes for years, but have never been able to enjoy that pleasure because if I didn't remove the slightly colored fruit as soon as it developed, I would get up the next morning to find the birds had found my tomato first.

This year, I made a serendipitous discovery.  I had purchased some light weight fabric veggie bags at my local Whole Foods store at about the same time my tomatoes were beginning to ripen.  One day I decided to see what would happen if I tied one of the drawstring bags around the ripening fruit.  Low and behold...my tomato could ripen without the birds even noticing.  It seems to work quite well on single tomatoes but unless the drawstring was pulled tight over multiple ripening tomatoes - something would always get at them, pulling the bag off and eating or pecking great holes in the fruit.

At the fabric store, I discovered that "Tulle" fabric was the closest thing to the fabric the veggie bags were made out of.  I have made a number of additional drawstring bags out of just a half yard of fabric and have enjoyed vine ripened tomatoes all summer.

Update:  Making bags became a drag.  I discovered cheap, as in 33 cent a pair, knee-high stockings pulled over ripening tomatoes also served the same purpose and got the same results.   The knee high stockings came in small round clear plastic balls which I found at my local Walgreens Pharmacy.

Boycotting the Monsanto owned seed company Seminis

http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-garden/2009/12/the-boycotting-of-monsanto-seminis-seeds/

My friends I am not a fan of Monsanto.  The attached article provides some steps we can take to ensure we are not supporting this company.  Never forget that Monsanto gave us Agent Orange.  Monsanto is creating Genetically Engineered crops also referred to as GMO's or Genetically Modified Organisms. GMO crops in the USA now include 

Soybean, Maize, Cotton, Canola, Squash (I believe this is summer squash), Papaya, Alfalfa, Sugarbeet

 I personally do not believe GMO's have been adequately tested to determine their long term safety for human consumption.  I view the "Research" done by Agrabusinesses, like Monsanto, with the same jade eye I had for the "Research" done by the tobacco industry in the 50's, 60's and 70's - they were quick to tell us there was nothing wrong with their product and that it was in no way connected to disease.   We now know that was a LIE.  Currently at least 60 countries from all over the world are banning foods containing GMO crops, the USA is not among them.

"How do you keep your garden safe from seeds produced by Monsanto/Seminis and other companies who are not aligned with your ideology?  

You're going to have to do research that's harder than reading lists that have been copied and pasted around the internet.

Step #1 Pick up the phone and call the seed company you want to buy from and ask if Seminis supplies their seeds. If Seminis is their supplier keep looking until you find another seed company.

Step #2 Repeat Step #1 until you find a company that doesn't. Or at least until you find a seed company that carries the particular seeds you want that aren't supplied by Seminis. Some companies may only carry certain seeds from Seminis, and you may end up having to make a moral trade-off if you really want to grow a particular, flower, vegetable or fruit. 

You should also learn to collect and save your own seeds or try buying some cool heirloom varieties of the veggies you want to grow."

(from the attached article)

It's summer, The leaf footed Stink Bugs Have Arrived

I was in the garden this morning, picking produce when i found this little crowd gathered on one of my tomatoes.  

This is the nymph of the leaf footed stink bug.  After they hatch out, they prefer to hang out in groups, sucking the juices out of tomatoes (their preferred crop) or peppers.  Have you ever noticed little, hard white spots on your tomatoes after they've ripened?  I've seen them in years past, on the plum tomatoes I was growing. This and the resulting adults are the culprits.

I had invested in a spray bottle earlier in the year, figuring I'd try a good spray of ivory soap solution on most pests before moving on to Bt or some other organic deterrent.

It worked!  I kept spraying until they stopped moving.  Now the trick will be to stay ahead of Momma Stink bug and destroy her children every time I see them until I can put an end to her and her sisters.  

I LOVE square foot gardening.  When you follow the system as described by Mel Bartholomew in his book Square Foot Gardening, you are closed to your plants, the plants themselves are closer together, there's hardly any weeding to be done, you can take care of problems quickly - sometimes even finding the bad guys before they have a chance to wreck havoc on your garden.  It really is a wonderful system!  I have an ambitious 6 - 4' x 4' garden but even few boxes produce a satisfactory harvest.

Eliminating Fire Any Colonies, Pests from Your Garden: Organic Gardening

Eliminating Fire Any Colonies, Pests from Your Garden: Organic Gardening (click on link)

For those of us living in the south, we struggle with a problem our friends in the north do not...Fire Ants.  These ants have a nasty habit of swarming when their mound is disturbed and biting, biting, biting which leaves welts on your skin that itch like the dickens.  If you scratch them the resulting scab remains for weeks and weeks at a time.  Rubbing alcohol applied immediately after being bitten seems to reduce or even prevent the welt from forming.  They are a gift from south of the boarder and have been making their way into the US.  Areas that don't experience a hard frost are plagued with them.  Most folks use "Fire Ant" killer, a harsh chemical that does destroy the mount but it's not something you want to put in your vegetable beds and by transfere eat it yourself.


I wanted to share this information from the Organic Gardening magazine people cause I used one of the suggestions.  Earlier in the year as I was moving from my winter garden to my summer garden I had several fire ant mounds in at least two of my 4' x 4' boxes.  With the help of a visiting family member, we poured at least 3 - 4 gallons of scalding hot water on each of the mounds and it worked.  The ant colony was destroyed and I have been ant "free" in those boxes ever since.

Growing Sweet Corn for the Very First Time

Getting Started

With 6 - 4' x4' grow boxes I felt there was plenty of room in my square foot garden for a box just dedicated to growing sweet corn.  I ordered "Country Gentleman", an heirloom, shoe peg white corn from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds.  According to the chart from the AgriLife Extension,  I could plant corn in my part of Texas anytime in March, so I planted on March 17th.  Although the typical planting instructions for corn is one seed kernel per square foot, in a square foot garden you can plant four kernels per square foot.  

                                                                                                Outsmarting the Critters

I had read that birds and squirrels love newly sprouted corn and will gorge themselves on the fresh sprouts as they  begin to poke through the soil.  I had previously built chicken wire covers for just such an occasion and after carefully planting half of my 4' x 4' square I placed the cover over the box.  It worked like a charm.  My corn sprouted and grew to the height of the cover without any birds or squirrels helping themselves to the tender plants.  I planted the second half of the grow box the following week as I didn't want to have all the corn ready at the same time.  Next year, I'll probably start planting earlier (weather permitting) and plant the second half of the box two weeks later instead of one week later.


Kitchen Skewers for Pest Control
It has been fascinating to watch the stalks grow taller and taller, seemingly overnight, after each watering.  I found that some of the leaves on three of the plants were being eaten and after careful examination found the little green worms causing the problem.  They had wedged themselves deep into the curls of the new growth and were hard to just pick out and destroy.  I found that a long wooden skewer from the kitchen, commonly used for shiskabob, was long enough and sharp enough to move the worm to within range of destruction.   

Natural Disaster Flattens Corn
About two weeks ago, we had a very heavy rain storm, with a great deal of wind, during the night; when I got up the next morning my tall, beautiful stalks had been knocked down flat to the ground.  They weren't broken off, just pushed down by the wind and heavy rain.  I should have taken a picture but I was more concerned about getting them back up then photography.   I propped up what stalks I could but there were really too many to tip back up without support.  I built a PVC frame structure around the outside of my grow box, using those green stakes from the gardening department to hold the PVC in place.  Then I wrapped a sturdy rope about 3 feet from the ground around each of the vertical legs of the frame so that the corn would have something to lean against.  It took several days to get everything back up again.  Some of the bigger stalks needed to have additional support, which I provided by pushing thin bamboo stakes from the garden center into the soil near the base of the stalk and tying the stalk to the bamboo.  I am pleased to say every thing is now back to the way it was before the storm.


Things I've Learned Thus Far
I've learned that the flowering part of the corn stalk appears first, followed about a week later by a purple tassel of corn silk along the middle of the stalk.  According to the Master Gardeners at the extension service, corn is usually pollinated by the wind.  Every so often I've gone out and shook a stalk or two in hopes that the ears will pollinate more fully and completely.  I haven't picked anything yet but I hope to be able to do so soon.

And here is the product of my labors.

Growing Potatoes in a sack

In an earlier post I mentioned that I was planning to grow potatoes in sacks.  There was a link attached to that entry for how to make Tater tote grow sacks out of black weed stop material.  I didn't follow the measurement instructions carefully and instead of sacks that measured 14 - 16 inches across, I had sacks that measures about 10 - 12 inches across.  Even with the smaller sacks I still enjoyed a measure of success.


I found the smaller sacks were hard to keep up right, I think a sack with a larger base would stand up without falling over as the potato plants grew.  I had watched an uncle grow potatoes in hay and I was able to located a large black garbage bag of loose hay at a local feed store, at a good price, and grew my potatoes in the hay.  I had sewn 8 sacks and I harvested  1.75 lbs of potatoes.  Next year, I will create more and larger sacks, weigh them down with bricks instead of stones, grow them in a different section of the compost heap and see if I can grown more and larger potatoes.


Surprisingly, I had no problem with potato bugs.  I have vivid memories of picking ugly, light orange potato bugs off my family's potatoes as a kid; but the worst I had to deal with were the occasional pill bugs that seemed to enjoy making holes in the leaves of the plant.


These were all about 2.5 - 3 inches across.  There were a few itty bitty ones but I was told by an Idaho potato farmer that those were common.

Now's the time to get the "Summer" garden in

I put "Summer" in quotes because here in SE Texas we are currently enjoying the warm, pleasant weather the rest of the country enjoys during the summer months.  During everyone else's summer, we are experiencing scorching heat - where we go from our air conditioned houses, to our air conditioned cars to the next air conditioned building and  the garden is pretty much left to fend for itself.


For those who follow this blog...now is the time to put in all those vegetables you enjoy eating.  Tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, peppers, etc.


My Tomatoes are ready to go, so ready in fact, they are beginning to put out blossoms. Today, I'm getting the beds ready and cleaning up the weeds that have snuck in.  Tomorrow it the BIG day.  If you're
 in the north, St. Patrick's Day is traditionally the day to plant peas.


HAPPY GARDENING, Y'all!

Look what happens when you keep watering those poinsettias you get at Christmas time

Although this isn't exactly about my garden exploits, it is about something my DH has been successfully growing.  I just had to show you a picture.  This Poinsettia is probably about 3 years old and during the month of February it has come into full color.  The only thing special we've done to it is water and fertilize it regularly.  

It's time to start growing potatoes - Making Tater Tote Grow Bags

I was thumbing through a grower supply catalog not long ago and noticed an ad for Potato grow bags.  I've never grown potatoes before but I had heard that they weren't particularly fussy about how they were grown.  I remembered my Great Uncle Arthur growing them in straw.   I didn't particularly care for the price listed in the catalog so after searching the internet, I found this website for  Potato grow bags.  I've made 4 for my own purposes and an additional 4 for an intrepid friend the try as well.  Now is the time to start growing potatoes in this part of Texas, here goes a new experiment in growing.  I'll keep you posted and will post pictures as they become available.  For my local followers, if you are interested, I still have more of the fabric.


http://www.instructables.com/id/Tater-Totes-Potato-grow-bags/

The Winter Garden

The winter garden is growning quite well.  We spent the better part of October tearing up the old garden beds and putting in the six - new square foot garden 4 x 4 beds.  The first bed on the left, I discovered does not get enough sun currently, so I've rolled some extra chicken wire over it to keep the cats and squirrels out and will plant in it when the curvature of the sun changes.


The bed in front on the right, is full of broccoli and brussel sprouts.  The broccoli is just now forming tiny baby heads.  It will be interesting to see how fast they form.  I have three box covers made out of chicken wire and 2"x 2"x 4' squares.  These are currently covering 2 boxes on the left and 1 box on the right as these do not have all of the squares in use and I wanted to keep 4 legged critters out.


The middle box on the right is boasting healthy squares of radishes, romaine lettuce, parsley, swiss chard and kale which I am harvesting regularly.  Behind the kale and swiss chard is an ailing chive plant which I plan to move to some empty space between the kale and radishes.  Everything has gotten too tall and the chive plant is not happy.


I can happily say that the garlic, kolirabi, and onion sets are all doing quite well.  The kolirabi is beginning to form the bulb which gives the plant the nickname of cabbage turnip.


In a few weeks I will be sewing together some Tater Totes: Potato Grow Bags.  Here in southeast Texas the chart I'm following says I can plant potatoes between the middle of January and the middle of February.    I remember my great Uncle Arthur growing potatoes in straw and this seems to work on a similar principle.  I got my idea for making grow bags from the following website:  http://www.instructables.com/id/Tater-Totes-Potato-grow-bags/  This will be a grand experiement, as I have read that potatoes in the grocery store are coated in a lot of pesticide residue.                                                  

How to remove a stump in 2 - 3 days instead of 2 - 3 years

(Let me begin by saying this blog post has taken on a life of it's own.  It has been sited more times than I have even attempted to count.  I've gotten weekly reports for the past 3 1/2 years that it has been up, of all the times it has been viewed.  First, know that I was desperate to get this stump down to ground level, below the level of my grow boxes.  It was right where the box was intended to go.  I was already growing some of the most expensive produce in the world and was not anxious to spend an additional $75 to hire a man with a stump grinder.  AND LET ME BE PERFECTLY CLEAR:  at NO time was the stump allowed to burn all the way down below the soil surface where the roots could catch fire and continue to burn for days, or months and endanger property, and other surrounding trees. Once it was no longer in the way of what I wanted to do, I put out the fire and broke up what remained of the stump at ground level with a hammer.  I was confident the fire was totally and completely out as I was able to place my hand fully on all chard areas and around the surrounding soil and was confident there was no heat any where.  Over the years, Mother Nature has taken care of what was left of the stump at ground level and below and it is no longer a problem.  It is imperative that should you chose to "try this at home" that you use common sense, pay attention, don't leave it unattended or where children can play with it.  I even had a friend come over and keep an eye on it when I had to run an errand AND I did NOT do it for more than a 24 hour period.) And let me repeat it again, YES, it is safer to hire a guy with a stump grinder, if you are willing to wait and willing to invest the money. 

This stump was in the corner of my garden bed. The picture shows what I did to kill the stump by placing a pile of lighted charcoal briquet's on top of it. It scorched it but it wasn't a big enough effort to actually make it disappear.

I have been waiting for my tree man to come and grind this stump out but business has been slow, so they haven't needed to rent a stump grinder and they were not sure how long it would be before they would be using one. I waited three weeks and then decided if I wanted to finish the garden beds, I would need to take matters into my own hands. What you see in the picture is only part of the stump. When we cleared the dirt away we discovered it had a broad base. A friend had come out to see if he could cut it closer to the ground but the wood proved harder than his chain saw could handle, So there was still more stump above ground then would be good for a garden bed.

Last Wednesday, I decided to really apply the charcoal burn out method. This time I piled charcoal all over the stump and kept adding more and more briquet's as the old ones burned down. To prevent my yard from catching fire due to the breezes blowing around sparks, I covered it with a flipped over galvanized oil pan. By Thursday, about 1/2 the stump was gone. I poked the loose stuff, scooped off the excess charcoal dust so as not to get the growth inhibitor coating of the charcoal into my good growing soil; and began the process of adding more burning briquets to what remained. By Friday, I had accomplished my goal;instead of a stump, a hole appeared in it's place. Now it looks like this:

February 6, 2014 - There has been a remarkable amount of interest in this post.  If you have the time there are lots of other ways to get rid of stumps, all take more time then I wanted to invest. There are many suggestions in the comments section of alternative methods.  AND, yes, you can always hire someone to grind it out - I was tired of waiting for my tree man and wanted to get the garden started.  My whole point in burning the stump was to reduce it down to ground level.  All of my grow boxes are raised beds and the stump was located in the area I wanted to build a raised bed.  I never at anytime tried to burn the stump down to the point where I could possibly have a long burning root fire underground.  This was a quick, easy solution.  If you try this at home, do be careful.  Don't go for "I want to get every last root burned out."  As other's have mentioned in the comments, this could be a dangerous decision and could cause an under ground smoldering fire.  I figured after I got the stump down to ground level, mother nature could do the rest with the roots underground.  I will mention that after I cleared all of the charcoal dust away and doused what was left of the stump